Thinking Medieval: Scarterran cities versus Medieval Earth cities

The basics of medieval towns and cities are mostly the same for Scarterra and Medieval Europe.  

Location Location Location

 

Food and Water is the Number One Most Important Thing

  Our ancient ancestors spent most of their time, labor, and minds towards acquiring food (and water). As means of acquiring food became more efficient, some people were able to devote their time, labor and minds towards things that aren't food.   This is how we eventually got all forms of technological and philosophical advancement and is the basis of all civilization ever.   Villages, towns, cities, and the like develop and grow larger when an area produces enough food surplus to let specialists in other skillsets other than producing food to gather.   Scarterrans have a slightly easier time with getting drinking water than Medieval humans but are roughly on equal footing for producing food, so the same general guidelines apply between Scarterra and historical Earth.   Settlements are usually surrounded by farmland, good fishing areas, good hunting grounds, or waterways or roadways that can transport food from farther away. The more of these things you have in one place, the bigger the city that can develop.   Ideally, you want an abundant source of fresh water like from a river or lake, but streams, wells, and the like will work. Water can be piped in from afar via aqueducts and certain forms of magic and/or technology can turn questionable sources of drinking water into viable sources of drinking water. The better a place access to drinking water is, the bigger the city that can develop there.   Without a reliable source of food and water, building a settlement is impossible, at least not a very big one.  

Other Resources are Nice Too

  As long as a place has a steady and reliable access to food and water, that is technically all you need to grow a city. The surplus of food will let specialists in various skill sets congregate and build up so called "human capital" even in the absence of other resources. Still, other resources are always desirable.   A city lacking local building materials can still import them from far away, but a city with nearby access to timberland, stone quarries, clay quarries, and other building materials will be able to grow much faster than one that has import such materials.   Cities are going to want firewood or coal or peat moss or something flammable to heat their homes, cook their meals and fuel the fires of industry. This can be imported from far away, but a city with a local fuel source will grow much faster than one without it.   You can apply the same logic to metal ores, reagents, textiles, natural harbors, lootable relics from ancient civlizations and any else you can think of that someone would want to barter for. The more resources you can access in one place, the more people will want to live there. People will go to great lengths to import food and water if the local non-food resource is very valuable, like a gold mine in the middle of a desert.  

Strategic Locations

  A strategic location can mean accessibility.   No town or city is going to have access to ALL resources they might want. The most valuable resources are locations that enable transportion to other places like rivers, harbors, traversible mountain passes, and artificial constructions like roadways. This lets an area bring in foreign resources.   A strategic location can mean inaccessibility.   Scarterra is a rough place and any thing natural terrain that makes a place harder to besiege or invade is valuable because Scarterrans (like all other sentient creatures) like being safe.  

Relationship Between Rural and Urban dwellers in Scarterra

  In medieval Europe and pretty much every preindustrial city on Earth, cities had a higher death rate than the surrounding countryside.   The higher death rate was driven mostly from the sanitation and health risks of packing people and animals in a small space. The same factors apply to Scarterra, but it is mitigated slightly because cities have greater access to Purification wielding theurgists.   Because of the higher death rate, historical Earth cities needed a steady influx of immigrants coming in from the countryside and finding a steady stream of immigrants was seldom a problem as many sons and daughters of farmers came to towns and cities looking for new opportunities. There is no reason why this social phenomenon would not also occur in Scarterra although because of the slightly lower urban death rate in Scarterra, a higher proportion of Scarterran city dwellers are city born.   For the vast majority of history in nearly every corner of the Earth, from ancient times all the way into the 21st century, rural areas have a higher per capita birth rate than urban areas regardless of the life expectancy differences.   I don't see why the numerous and complex social factors leading to this phenomenon would not also apply to Scarterra.      

Living in a City

  Most Scarterran cities, like most medieval Earth cities are fairly cramped, privacy is a luxury in Scarterra.   Towns and cities are cramped because since every building has to be assembled by hand, and the bricks, boards, and beams and other building material is also have to made by hand, people tend to be packed into homes and buildings pretty tight to save costs on building.   Fuel is expensive, so packing people in tight is cheaper because more people can crowd around one heart. It takes less material to make one big bed than to make several smaller bed so adults sharing beds with casual acquaintances is fairly common.   Beyond the raw cost of building materials, most Scarterran settlements ranging to humble villages to mighty cities all either have protective or they want protective walls.   Once a city's walls are built, you effectively put a hard limit on where you can expand, so walled cities usually expand up not out. To expand out requires creating a second wall which is really expensive and time consuming though some city fathers believe this expense is worth it.  

City Streets and Public Spaces

  One unfortunate side effect of space being at a premium in Scarterran cities is that streets tend to be narrow and that means navigating the streets can be slow and cumbersome, especially when it comes to large carts.   Most Scarterran cities evolved slowly. Hamlets grow into villages, villages grow into towns and towns grow into small cities and small cities grow in large cities. This tendency leads to roads being more cramped and chaotic as streets are put whereever they fit so they often wind and weave in counter intuitive directions. Narrow streets were okay when a village just had to accomodate small carts and wagons but as cities get larger, the carts and wagons often get larger.   Market Squares, public gardens, temple plazas and other public spaces tend to be small and cramped as well.   This refers to organically evolved cities. Sometimes, a king or queen or someone else important "I want to build a great city on this spot!" Pre-planned cities hav their own unique problems, but they have many advantages over cities that grow more naturally.   Pre-planned cities usually have wider streets that follow logical grid patterns. Pre-planned cities tend to have wider plazas and more spacious gathering spaces and gardens.   Most pre-planned cities either have a palace, manor estate, or castle for the ruling elites at the center or have a Nonagon Plaza at the center. Or, frequently they have a living space for the ruling elites AND a Nonagon Plaza.   Nonagon Plazas are a landmark unique to Scarterra. Nine separate temples (one for each the Nine) are arranged equidistant in a symetirical Nonagon and the nonagon field in between in usually paved carefully. This plaza is used for public worship ceremonies for several deities throughout the year.   Not every town or city has a Nonagon Plaza, not all of them even want one. They are expensive to build or maintain and a lot of the more asocial priesthoods prefer not to set up their headquarters in plain sight of their rivals or to have negotiate with other temples just to have a ritual on the public space in front of their own temple.  

What Goes Where

  Because space is at a premium and most cities grow organically one block at a time, city planners do not always the luxury of putting everything where they want, but at least they try.   Smelly industries like tanneries should be on the edge of town or even outside the city walls. Butcher shops, stables, and other areas that handle livestock smell but they also need to be relatively accessible. Craftsmen that rely on open fires to ply their trades ideally should have their workshops near bodies of water.   Scarterrans of every social class ideally want to live near where they work. Merchants and vendors want to be able to set up their stalls and shops in high traffic areas. Innkeepers ideally want to set up their inns near the city entrance. City watch commanders want their guard barracks to be near mannable fortifications. City rulers want public monuments in highly visible places to show off their power and prestige. Rich Scarterrans usually want some "social distance" for poorer Scarterrans.   In every historical period, larger cities Earth cities often develop ethnic neighborhoods. You can debate whether this is because people prefer to associate with their own group or maybe because the powers that be are pressuring minorities to cluster together. Either way, Scarterran cities tend to have ethnic neighborhoods. Since Scarterra is a fantasy setting, this often means fantasy races often cluster together. Tengku often cluster in a part of town called "the Nest". Gnomes often cluster in "Little Village" (and the low ceilings make uncomfortable for non-gnomes to congregate there. Since gnomes and tengku disproportionately like to live in urban areas, almost every Scarterran town has a "Nest" and "Little Village" in them, but they are far from the only ethnic enclaves in Scarterran cities.   Similar businesses usually cluster together. If a settlement is big enough to have more than one blacksmith shop, they blacksmith shops are probably clustered together. Same thing goes for every other profession. Most streets are referred to by names of the businesses on them: Baker's Street, the Street of Smiths, Scholars Boulevard, etc.      

Rennovating an Existing City

  In a feudalistic society the king or queen rules all and allows his vassals to use their land. The vassals and lesser lords in turn allow the commoners to use their land.   Legally, a king can seize any property on his land for any reason or no reason. Feudal lords likewise have very few legal barriers to seizing their peasants land, houses, and other property. But just because it's legal doesn't mean its a good idea. The feudal system is built on mutual trust and a peasant who builds a nice house for his family is operating on the assumption that his lord is not going to get a bee up his butt and evict him for no reason.   If a lord seizes someone's land they have not only made an enemy for life from the former occupants of said land, they also will make all other property owners nervous that their home or business might be next. This is a good way to foment rebellion. EIther a full on rebellion with angry mobs and assassins of a soft rebellion where a lord finds that his orders are obeyed in a slow and lackluster manner.   Sometimes the ruler of a city needs to seize land in order to do something for the public good (or their own self aggrandizement), but they will usually compensate the previous owners in some manner or try to fabricate a plausible crime they are being punished for.   Scarterran towns, like many historical Earth cities often had to deal with devestating fires. There is a silver lining, at least to the city fathers. If a section of a city is completely destroyed, they can reconstruct the destroyed section as a pre-planned city. Many lords make no secret of their delight in doing this, so much so that every accidental fire will breed conspiracy theories that "this was no accident".  

Fire Hazards

  As mentioned several times, space is at a premium. This means houses are close together. Close together building are a fire hazard. Even if a building is made out of stone or fire retardant bricks, most stone or brick buildings have wooden support beams. Most furniture is made out of wood. Buildings are filled with piles of hay and straw, stacks of parchment and other flammable material.   Remember, every home or business is heated by fireplaces and at night, medieval technology means artificial lighting usually takes the form of candles or torches, in other words, open flames. That is a lot of risk factors for accidental fires.   Enemy armies love to set fire to the homes and settlements of their enemies. No society is immune to creating sociopaths who might have a penchant for arson and Scarterra has some violent fringe cults that certainly breed their fair share of archers.   Scarterra has magical or alchemical means of fighting fires, but on the whole, adding and alchemy magic to the equation increases the risk of accidental fires. Especially caused by feral Elementals.  

by Eron12 with Hero Forge

"Any uncontrolled elemental in a city is a serious problem. Nine help us all when it's a fire elemental   So called 'feral' elementals are not normally hostile...at least not as far as we know. Theolgians and sages aren't sure if elementals are truly sentient or even truly alive but their physical actions often ressemble a playfully curious child and they seem unknowning or uncaring of the fact that their form of "play" is very destructive on the mortal plane to both persons and property.   Feral elementals pop up temporalily at random intervals in areas saturated with ambient magic. The more magic people cast in the same place and same general time, the more likely it is a that feral elemental will appear. This give more reason besides maleficium to regulate magic use in a city.   This is why magic schools, magic tournaments, magic exhibitions and theurgists' monastaries ideally are established outside city limits but even then, a lot of magic gets cast inside cites, so random elementals are an unfortunate fact of life for Scarterran city dwellers."   -Marek, Court Wizard of Wiern

  There are spells that control water or make sudden bursts of cold. This can magically extinguish a fire. Magic can also move earth to smother flames or put flame retardant earthen walls. That said, most Scarterran cities have the same fire fighting options of historical Earth cities: buckets and shovels.   Any soldiers on a city watch have been briefed on what to do in case of a fire. Most public sources of water have a storehouse of emergency buckets nearby. The old schools means of fighting fire still in use today in some parts of the world is to form of line of people between a water source and a fire and pass full buckets towards the person closer to fire and pass empty buckets towards the person closer to the water source.   If there is an accidental fire in a city, soldiers can legally deputize any able bodied citizen into a makeshift fire brigade and order them to pick up a bucket or a shovel. Anyone that refuses will be severely punshed later (if they can be identified).   The late medieval/early Renaisance era of Earth had water pumps that can carted on wagons which was a handy fire fighting tool. Thanks to dwarven and gnomish engineering, Scarterra has these things too and they probably even better than their historical Earth counterparts, but they cannot create water, only move water. Assuming the city guard is fortunate enough to have such a pump wagon, they probably still need a bucket brigade so they can refilling the wagon.   Lets not forgot fire breathing monsters. Most of Scarterra's fire breathers generally avoid going to heavily populated areas but when they do visit, it is very memorable.